A River in the Night
Posted on July 18th, 2008
Wow, time slips by quickly. Has it really been over a month since I wrote anything for this site? Proves my blogging inconsistency. I’ll go for a week or two in a row posting regularly, then stop for an endless time while other things in life take priority.
Like having a child. Still waiting for that, though. Due date’s in three days, so any day now they can come!
Anyway, I am still here, still in ministry, still pondering how to do this thing and live life in a God-honoring way. And still reading books. Just not the ones I have in the sidebar at the moment…that’s the next update!
Hopefully, I’ll post more later. In the meantime, back to whatever it was I was doing before.
Tags: books, Life, parenting
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“The Pursuit of Holiness” by Jerry Bridges
Posted on May 25th, 2008
I’m pretty sure that this book is destined to be one of those that I read and reread over the course of my life. It serves as a good reminder of the depth of sin, the bleakness of it, the need to eradicate it from our lives. Surely such a thing would be obvious to those of us who identify ourselves as Christ followers, who have sworn our lives to serve the One whom we believe died for our sins. And yet it is so easy to forget. I’m not sure why. I just know that, having finished reading this book for the second time (I read it in college for a class), I am newly inspired to pursue a Christ-like life that can be described as pursuing holiness. I want it. And right now, I am even willing to get up at 5AM every day to demonstrate that.
Unfortunately, 11 hours from now will be a real test of that passion, and that’s just sad. That my life is challenged by that, and not defined by that. I am a Christian. A “little Christ.” I am part of His body. A hand or a foot or a little toe or a hair that protects from cold or something – I’m a part of His body. And I don’t live it. I have as my job the training of other members of His body. And I don’t live it.
It takes me a week to read a 158 page book about it, too. Arg.
I definitely need to reread this one once every few years, if not more often.
Tags: books, holiness, Life, sin
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Leah
Posted on May 1st, 2008
I was struck today while reading about Leah and Rachel’s competition in son-bearing that Leah praised God when her fourth son was born. The first three sons Scripture records her using as means to buy Jacob’s love, which Rachel had stolen before Jacob even met Leah. Finally, by the fourth son, Leah relinquishes that – at least for the moment – and rather than thinking that Judah would turn Jacob’s eye to her, she simply praised God for another son.
I am struck by a couple of aspects. One, that she praised God at all. I’m sure it was a pretty normal thing in the culture of the day to praise a deity for the gift of a child, particularly of the male variety. I guess she thought that since Rachel was barren (apparently), and she now had four sons for Jacob, that he status was secured, even if Jacob never loved her as he loved Rachel. In a way, I guess the praise feels “left over.” Like an afterthought or something. Especially since, when Rachel hands over her maidservant, the competition starts all over again with renewed vigor.
The other thing that strikes me, and contributes to the “left over” feeling, is that it took her to son number four before she gave praise to God. The first three were all about Jacob. Even her fifth and sixth sons she counted as wages due her by God for some action she had taken – something God provided for her on account of her circumstances, rather than an undeserved blessing for her simply to be thankful for.
And I guess I’m struck because I have the same tendency. God is down on the list. I eventually think of Him and even thank Him for the good things in life – the blessings. But it’s after they are here for a while, and I’ve enjoyed gloating over them or showing them off to someone else. It’s about me getting my status right first. Then I’ll give God the glory and the honor. Once I’m set up the way I want to be set up, then I’ll turn over the praise.
More ramblings that probably have little or nothing to do with what Rachel and Leah actually were dealing with in their lives. Besides, there are so many reasons that I cannot understand or comprehend what they were going through…beginning with my chromosome set.
Tags: Life, Old Testament, Worship
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Bethel
Posted on April 29th, 2008
Today’s Scripture is from Genesis 28, when God introduces himself to Jacob for the first time and promises to fulfill the covenant He made with Abraham and Isaac through Jacob. The devotional thought that came with the text suggested that this is Jacob’s first encounter with God. I don’t know that I buy that – probably the first encounter with God of this kind, but probably not his first encounter, having grown up as the grandson of Abraham and son of Isaac. Perhaps the first personal encounter? Maybe that’s what the editor meant.
In any event, the thought went on to ask the question about the reader’s own first encounter with God. What was it like? Jacob set up conditions (“If God does this, then I will do this”), but also set up the altar that he called Bethel (“House or Dwelling Place of God”).
I don’t know if I remember my first encounter with God. In fact, I’m sure that I do not. I remember when a tropical storm (or minimal hurricane, not sure which) went over the house we were living in on the Gulf Coast, and Mom gathered us in her bedroom and prayed to God to protect us. I was young then, maybe four or five. We were fine, as was our house. Is that an encounter with God? I remember flickers of what I call my salvation experience…being in my parents’ bedroom, talking with our church’s pastor, being baptized. Is that my first encounter? I can look back and clearly see places and times where God guided me, protected me, steered me, put me in the precisely right place at the precisely right time. Are any of these my first encounter? I remember as a senior in high school, ten years after that time in my parents’ bedroom, pacing up and down the street in front of our house, trying to figure out what to do with my life (so that I could finish my college application – singular – by writing down a major), and having the assurance that I would be in full time ministry. Without a doubt. Though I had no clue what that looked like (pastor? missionary? professor?). Just that ministry was it. Because I was 18, it’s probably the most vivid encounter with God that I can remember. But I wouldn’t call it my first encounter.
I guess my first encounter came before memories started sticking in my brain. Probably my mother singing to me or praying over me (or for me, in another room). I do know that my life is different from the lives of others in the world who have not encountered God in a significant way. While I often take detours down the paths of consumerism and commercialism and materialism, I’m always drawn back. Jacob was a conniving liar who stole from his twin brother and spent the remainder of his life cowering from him, but God still chose him and always drew him back into His plan.
Sometimes I wish I had a dramatic instant-change testimony like I sometimes hear at meetings or conferences or read about in books. But then I count myself lucky that my encounter with God is lifelong, ever present. I have, at times, flirted with doubts about God’s existence or providence, but never for long. He is always with me. Just like God promised to always be with Abraham, with Isaac, with Jacob, with their descendants. He is always with me.
That’s my Bethel.
Tags: God, Life, salvation
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unChristian
Posted on March 12th, 2008
I actually, for once, have finished a book. David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons’s study of the younger generations they label the Busters and the Mosaics was a really good survey of who and what we are, since I am one of them. For me, it was helpful just to see much of what I think confirmed or explained in some way – at least I know it’s not just me (that that I really thought that)! However, I am not really sure what the book was trying to accomplish other than, “This is what it’s like.” And I’m not sure that it accomplishes that.
I found that I was nodding my head a lot in agreement, so I don’t think the book is wrong in any of what it says. But I’m not sure that it will change anything. I know of one older Boomer who started reading it, but hasn’t gotten past chapter 2. I don’t think he is sure what to do with the material. His attitude is more like, “If it’s that bad, what hope is there?”
I guess I’m not sure whether to recommend the book or not. I suppose it is best for someone who wants to understand where the younger generations are coming from, or for a member of the younger generation who wants to balance a traditionally conservative expression of Christianity with the thinking of his/her peers and professors.
Tags: book reviews, faith, Life
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